Zendesk vs HubSpot: Which CRM is Best in 2025?

In ecommerce, effective customer service is crucial for customer retention. Tools like Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub enhance support operations and customer engagement.

Zendesk, started in 2007, is known for being easy to use and good for support. HubSpot Service Hub is part of a bigger platform that focuses on CRM, helping your support and sales teams work together with shared customer data.

Both Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub help ecommerce businesses improve support, speed up response times, and use data to make better decisions. However, they differ in how complex they are, how much you can customize them, their pricing, and their approach to CRM and support.

This article compares Zendesk vs HubSpot Service Hub, looking at their features, integrations, pricing, and scalability. By understanding these differences, you can pick the best tool for your ecommerce.

Overview of HubSpot vs Zendesk

Below is a comparison table offering a quick overview of the main features Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub provide:

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Feature Analysis

Here is an in-depth head-to-head analysis of Zendesk vs Hubspot Service Hub:

Overall Approach and Usability

Zendesk began as a support solution, focusing on delivering top-notch customer service experiences with minimal complexity.

Its ticketing system and communication tools are straightforward yet powerful, helping teams enhance their support capabilities without extensive technical overhead. For ecommerce businesses aiming to rapidly improve their support operations, Zendesk’s user-friendly nature and proven track record make it a compelling option.

HubSpot Service Hub, part of HubSpot’s CRM platform, adopts a CRM-centric approach. Every interaction is linked to the comprehensive customer record managed by HubSpot’s CRM.

This alignment ensures that support, sales, and marketing teams all have a unified view of each customer. While HubSpot’s interface is also user-friendly, the CRM-first design allows businesses to move beyond isolated support tickets, leveraging context from other departments for more personalized interactions.

In short:

• Zendesk: Ideal for quickly enhancing support operations with a user-friendly system.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Perfect for teams wanting CRM-driven support that ties into broader customer lifecycle management.

Multichannel Support and Live Chat

Customers expect fast, convenient help across multiple channels. Zendesk integrates email, chat, phone, social media, and SMS into a centralized interface. Its AI chatbots handle common questions, freeing agents to tackle complex issues.

This approach suits ecommerce teams aiming to offer responsive live chat and maintain consistency even during high volumes of inquiries.

There are many other viable Hubspot Service Hub and Zendesk alternatives, make sure you know them all before choosing.

HubSpot Service Hub also supports various channels, ensuring that customer conversations whether through email, chat, phone, or social link back to the CRM record. Live chat capabilities, including conversational bots, allow proactive engagement.

Agents can see interaction histories and product preferences directly from the CRM, ensuring personalized support. For businesses looking to tie chat interactions directly to marketing campaigns or sales opportunities, HubSpot’s integrated approach enhances the relevance of each conversation.

In short:

• Zendesk: Streamlined, top-tier live chat and multichannel support for immediate efficiency gains.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Multichannel support embedded in a CRM context, helping agents deliver personalized, data-informed customer engagements.

Ticket/Case Management and CRM Integration

Efficiently handling support requests drives agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Zendesk provides robust ticket management with macros, triggers, and SLAs, allowing businesses to automate repetitive tasks, route inquiries appropriately, and maintain service quality.

While Zendesk can integrate with CRMs (even HubSpot’s), its core strength lies in refining the support function itself.

HubSpot Service Hub manages tickets as part of the CRM, so every inquiry is another data point in the customer’s timeline. This means support activities don’t exist in a vacuum, they inform and are informed by sales history, marketing touchpoints, and customer behavior.

Workflows can trigger follow-ups, product demos, or marketing nurtures based on support outcomes. Although HubSpot’s ticketing may feel simpler than Zendesk’s depth, the CRM synergy can yield strategic benefits as teams align on customer objectives.

In short:

• Zendesk: Excellent dedicated ticketing system with advanced support workflows.
• HubSpot Service Hub: CRM-driven ticketing that ensures support is part of a holistic customer lifecycle, informing sales and marketing actions.

Knowledge Base & Self-Service

A comprehensive knowledge base empowers customers to find answers independently, reducing ticket volumes and improving satisfaction.

Zendesk excels here with a robust, customizable help center. Businesses can create branded portals, structure content by categories or products, and measure article performance to continuously improve. This approach benefits ecommerce stores handling diverse product lines and complex FAQs.

HubSpot Service Hub integrates its knowledge base within the CRM environment. Agents and customers access self-service content that’s connected to the full customer history.

Customers might find the exact guide or article based on their previous purchases or interactions, enabling more personalized self-service experiences. While HubSpot’s knowledge base may be less granularly customizable than Zendesk’s, the added CRM context helps ensure content is relevant.

In short:

• Zendesk: Highly customizable, robust knowledge bases perfect for large catalogs or complex FAQs.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Knowledge base integrated with CRM data, enhancing relevance and personalization even if the toolset is slightly simpler.

Automation, AI, and Advanced Features

Automation and AI can significantly enhance productivity and customer satisfaction by handling routine tasks and providing agents with intelligent suggestions.

Zendesk leverages advanced triggers, macros, and AI chatbots for managing common inquiries. This approach quickly reduces agent workload, so they can focus on more nuanced or high-value customer issues.

Adopting these features is relatively straightforward, making it easy for ecommerce teams to improve efficiency.

HubSpot Service Hub uses workflows and conversational bots that benefit from the CRM’s underlying data. AI-powered tools can identify high-priority customers, suggest relevant articles, or even prompt sales actions based on support outcomes.

While some advanced capabilities may only appear in higher-tier plans, the potential to align automation with entire customer journeys stands out. This holistic approach suits businesses that want automation to inform not just support responses, but also cross-sell opportunities or loyalty-building activities.

In short:

• Zendesk: Immediate productivity boosts through straightforward automation and AI chatbots.
• HubSpot Service Hub: AI and automation that leverage CRM insights to support strategic engagement across multiple departments.

Reporting, Analytics, and Insights

Data-driven decisions improve service quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

Zendesk provides customizable dashboards focusing on response times, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction. These clear insights help managers set realistic targets, optimize staffing, and refine support processes.

HubSpot Service Hub goes beyond support-specific metrics by blending customer data, sales performance, and marketing interactions within one CRM ecosystem. This holistic view allows ecommerce businesses to link support metrics to revenue impact, measure how support interactions influence future purchases, and identify opportunities for proactive outreach. While harnessing these insights may require selecting the right HubSpot modules and refining dashboards, the result can be a more strategic use of customer data.

In short:

• Zendesk: Focused, actionable support metrics that are easy to digest.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Holistic analytics blending support with CRM data, enabling strategic insights across sales, marketing, and beyond.

Integration with Ecommerce and Other Tools

Connecting your support solution to your ecommerce platform ensures agents have order histories, preferences, and inventory details ready at their fingertips.

Zendesk integrates easily with leading ecommerce solutions, CRMs, and payment gateways. Its marketplace apps simplify extending functionality without heavy development. This suits businesses that need quick, straightforward integrations.

HubSpot Service Hub, built atop HubSpot’s ecosystem, integrates with ecommerce platforms through the HubSpot App Marketplace. Once connected, all data funnels into the CRM, enriching customer records with transaction details.

This synergy means support agents understand not just the issue at hand but also the customer’s broader purchase behavior and history, enabling more contextualized support.

In short:

• Zendesk: Rapid integration with ecommerce platforms and related tools.
• HubSpot Service Hub: CRM-driven integrations that enrich customer context, enhancing the quality of every support interaction.

Scalability, Customization, and Complexity

As your ecommerce business grows, you need a platform that can scale with you.

Zendesk scales effectively for support operations, layering on features as needed. Marketplace apps and APIs let you tailor workflows or extend functionality, balancing complexity with manageability.

This ensures that growth doesn’t overwhelm the system or complicate agent workflows unnecessarily.

HubSpot Service Hub, integrated with HubSpot’s CRM and marketing tools, scales by adding more modules or upgrading plans. As you grow, you can introduce advanced workflows, tie in marketing automation, or integrate sales pipelines.

While the environment remains user-friendly compared to some enterprise platforms, complexity can increase as you connect more data sources and run more sophisticated campaigns.

In short:

• Zendesk: Straightforward scalability aligned with support complexity.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Scalable within the CRM ecosystem, potentially enabling deeper synergy between support, sales, and marketing as you expand.

Pricing

Budget influences platform choice as your business evolves.

Zendesk employs tiered plans, placing advanced support features like AI bots and advanced analytics in higher tiers. This ensures smaller teams don’t overpay for capabilities they don’t yet need, while larger organizations can scale up as their complexity grows.

HubSpot Service Hub also uses a tiered model, often bundling functionalities with HubSpot’s other Hubs (Marketing, Sales, CMS). While starting costs can be reasonable, accessing advanced features or integrating multiple Hubs may increase expenses. The payoff is a unified platform where every department shares the same customer data and insights.

In short:

• Zendesk: Predictable tiered pricing focused on support needs.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Tiered pricing that can grow as you adopt more of HubSpot’s ecosystem, potentially offering more strategic value at a higher investment.

Setup and Training

Time-to-value matters for fast-moving ecommerce businesses.

Zendesk generally requires minimal training for essential support capabilities, allowing teams to begin improving response times and customer satisfaction quickly. While configuring advanced workflows or integrating multiple apps can take time, the platform aims to minimize onboarding complexity.

HubSpot Service Hub benefits from HubSpot’s reputation for user-friendliness and extensive educational resources. While connecting different Hubs and fine-tuning workflows can be an ongoing process, the initial learning curve is manageable, especially if your team is already familiar with HubSpot’s CRM or marketing tools.

HubSpot’s Academy offers training and certifications to help teams build confidence and skill over time.

In short:

• Zendesk: Quick deployment and minimal training for core support capabilities.
• HubSpot Service Hub: A manageable onboarding process supported by educational materials, especially attractive if you’re already using other HubSpot products.

Support and Resources

Accessible support and resources help maintain momentum and swiftly address any issues.

Zendesk provides support through email, phone, and live chat for higher-tier plans, along with extensive documentation and community forums. Dedicated managers and professional services can assist large or complex setups, ensuring that teams always find the help they need.

HubSpot Service Hub uses HubSpot’s Academy, detailed documentation, and a strong community of users. Beyond official channels, HubSpot’s ecosystem includes numerous partners offering consulting, training, and advanced implementations.

This combination ensures that businesses can find guidance and best practices aligned with their growth stage and complexity level.

In short:

• Zendesk: Straightforward support resources aligned with improving support operations.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Extensive educational resources, community support, and partner network for a CRM-first environment.

Must-Have Features for Ecommerce

Both Zendesk and Hubspot both support the essential features that a support system should have for 2025:

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Pick the Right Customer Engagement and CRM Tool for Your Ecommerce Needs

Both Zendesk and Hubspot Service Hub are viable options for most businesses, here is what you should be looking for in order to be the perfect fit for these tools:

Consider Zendesk if:

• You seek a support-focused solution with a user-friendly interface for quick improvements in response times and satisfaction.
• Your immediate priority is refining support efficiency rather than fully integrating sales and marketing data.
• You value a cost-effective, gradually scalable pricing model aligned with support complexity.

Consider HubSpot Service Hub if:

• You want a CRM-first approach where support, sales, and marketing share the same customer context.
• Integrating support with lifecycle insights, marketing nurtures, and sales opportunities is a strategic goal.
• You’re prepared to invest in the HubSpot ecosystem for long-term customer growth and loyalty.

Frequently Asked Questions

We have answered the most asked questions about Zendesk vs HubSpot Service Hub

How do Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub integrate with ecommerce platforms?

Both solutions integrate easily with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. Zendesk offers quick, plug-and-play integrations, while HubSpot leverages its CRM to provide context-rich support interactions. If you want to tie order histories and behavior deeply into support workflows, HubSpot’s CRM synergy can be advantageous.

Which platform offers easier agent onboarding?

Zendesk is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward ticket management, reducing the learning curve. HubSpot Service Hub is also approachable, particularly if your team is familiar with HubSpot’s CRM. Both platforms emphasize accessibility, but Zendesk often resonates with teams seeking a purely support-focused environment.

Can both handle scalability as my ecommerce business grows?

Yes. Zendesk scales by adding more features and integrations at higher tiers, ensuring you pay only for what you need. HubSpot Service Hub scales within the HubSpot ecosystem, letting you adopt more of the CRM’s capabilities, marketing automation, or sales tools as your business complexity increases.

What about AI-driven features and automation?

Zendesk provides robust automation and AI chatbots for immediate efficiency gains. HubSpot Service Hub, while offering automation and chatbots, leverages CRM data for more strategic engagement, potentially guiding not just support responses but also upsells and loyalty-building efforts.

Which solution is more cost-effective?

Zendesk’s tiered plans let you scale support sophistication incrementally. HubSpot Service Hub’s pricing model encourages growth within the HubSpot ecosystem, potentially driving greater long-term value if you integrate sales and marketing tools as well. Smaller teams may find Zendesk more cost-effective at first, while teams aiming for holistic CRM value might justify HubSpot’s investment.